


Odd Man Out

by Cinnasam



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Bisexual Character, Captain Ennoshita Chikara, M/M, Pining, Tanaka/omc, Vice-captain Tanaka Ryuunosuke, but only briefly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-05
Updated: 2017-03-10
Packaged: 2018-09-28 13:34:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10105124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cinnasam/pseuds/Cinnasam
Summary: There were a lot of jokes around the Karasuno campus about how gay the volleyball team was. It was mostly funny because of how obviously not gay they really were. The only exception to that is Ennoshita Chikara who has a very gay crush on his very straight teammate.





	1. Chapter 1

There were a lot of jokes around the Karasuno campus about how gay the volleyball team was. They weren't inherently mean, even if occasionally the jokes jibed at a sore spot. For the most part it was just an innocent inside joke shared by the entire school. It was only so funny because so few people actually believed that it was true. 

If you thought about it from an outside perspective, it wasn't hard to see why they were viewed that way. Between the near constant state of undress of some of their members (Tanaka, mostly), and the frequent, impassioned speeches about dreams, and "with me you're invincible" and "call for the toss ace, I've got your back!", it all seemed a little bit obvious. 

But from the inside it was obvious that it was just the opposite. Daichi and Suga were just good friends who shared fond, exasperated looks over their rambunctious team in a completely platonic manner. Noya and Asahi were simply senpai and kouhai that trusted one another on the court with their all. Hinata and Kageyama were volleyball partners that fit together perfectly on the court, and only somewhat less so off of it. 

Ennoshita felt like the only exception to all of this. To the not gay volleyball team. 

Since he was, you know, pretty gay. 

It was hard to be the only gay guy on such a straight team, but for reasons that one might not initially expect. It wasn’t that he had a problem with all of the straight guys. Not even when they insisted on proving how macho and straight they were with their crass words and their overwhelming athletic ability and their fists. That didn’t bother him much.

What he did have a problem with were his very straight teammates who were so confident in their own sexualities that they were able to act so passionate and _intimate_ with each other without feeling weird. At least it wasn't weird for them. It was a little weird for Ennoshita, who, at times, had to remove himself from his teammates' presence so he could calm down and remind himself that he was not, under any circumstances, allowed to develop a crush on any of his teammates. It was just hard when they were so _flirty_ all the time. At least it felt flirty to him. To everyone else they were just acting like _buds_.

Surprisingly, Ennoshita's strategy to avoid feelings had been working pretty well. So far he had been able to talk himself out of crushes on Daichi, Narita, and -god help him- Hinata. But there had always been one crush he couldn't shake off quite as easily as the rest. 

Tanaka.

It was weird. Because in a lot of ways Tanaka was the opposite of the kind of guy Ennoshita saw himself with. He had always pictured someone kind of quiet, like him, who was smart and cute. Someone who would be his intellectual equal. Maybe he would be able to springboard ideas for films off of them. 

But Tanaka was loud and stupid, and although he was handsome he wasn't exactly what Ennoshita would call cute (well at least not all the time, he had his moments though...). Tanaka was definitely inferior to him when it came to book smarts, but he was far superior in the fortitude of his mind and his athleticism. When Tanaka had first found out that Ennoshita liked making movies he immediately jumped in with script ideas and staging directions and expensive CGI creatures with all of the enthusiasm he could muster. Too bad all of his ideas were awful, and not to mention they were all horrible rip offs of every major monster movie ever made. 

But still, he was _funny_. Even if Ennoshita was loath to admit it, Tanaka made him laugh more than anyone else. He was charming in an unusual way that most people couldn’t see. But he was also so enthusiastic and genuine, and honestly a good person underneath all of his silliness and brute 'manliness' and…

And he was straight. 

Ennoshita tried not to think about it. Tried to think about Tanaka as just another teammate, but once that loveable oaf had worked his way into Ennoshita's brain he refused to leave. 

Stubborn asshole. 

* * *

"CHIKARAAAAAA WAIT FOR US!"

Nishinoya's voice carried surprisingly far for such a small guy. It was hard to notice such a thing in the gym where everyone's voices bounced off the walls just as much as their volleyballs did. But now, outside and on the path towards home the sound of Nishinoya's hollers forced Ennoshita to turn around just in time to see him and Tanaka bounding up the hill behind him. By the time they caught up with him, neither one was even out of breath even though the school had to have been at least a mile behind them. 'Muscleheads,' his brain supplied condescendingly, and the voice sounded just a bit too much like Tsukishima for his comfort. He shook it off. 

Nishinoya pounced from what had to be at least five meters away, and tangled his limbs around Ennoshita's frame. It almost knocked him over, but Ennoshita was proud to note that his balance had improved considerably after two years of being jumped on by the libero at any given moment. "Why'd you leave so fast after practice? We were gonna go get meat buns!" 

"You could have gone to get meat buns without me," Ennoshita responded, trying to extract Nishinoya from him politely. It wasn't really working. Politeness rarely worked on someone like Nishinoya when he was riled up. 

"C'mon, we couldn't go without our new captain!"

Finally, Ennoshita shook Noya off of him. "I'm not the captain," he reminded him sternly. 

"C'mon, everyone thinks that it should be you," Nishinoya said easily, bumping his shoulder into Ennoshita's arm, completely unaffected by the curt tone aimed at him. It was meant to be comforting, he knew, but it just made him feel like there was a rock of expectation in the pit of his stomach. Everyone on the team had told him time and time again that they thought he would make a great captain. The problem was that he wasn't so sure about it himself. He hardly even played in games. An no matter how much everyone else said that it made him relatable, that it made him approachable, that it could be a good thing, it still left Ennoshita feeling like if he took the position that he would be a fraud. 

Maybe no one else would think so, but it wouldn’t change how he felt about it himself. 

Damn, this inferiority complex was starting to get so exhausting.

"I think it should be Tanaka," Ennoshita deflected with a shrug. 

"Well no offence to Ryuu, but I think that's a terrible idea," Nishinoya countered immediately. 

Tanaka just shrugged. "None taken, dude."

"See? Everyone respects you and what you bring to the team, Chikara. There's no reason for you to not be the captain." 

Ennoshita could probably think of a few reasons, namely that he didn't want to and that he’d be terrible at it. But when he told Nishinoya as much the libero didn't take it too well. "What do you mean you don't want to!?"

"Just what I said." 

"Okay but being the captain is the coolest thing you can be! Why wouldn't you want that?"

"I thought that liberos were the coolest?" Ennoshita rebuttaled, hoping that Nishinoya would be distracted by the compliment and the conversation would ultimately veer off topic.

But of course, Nishinoya didn't take the bait. "It's the coolest _position_ , but as far as titles go captain is definitely the coolest!"

Ennoshita sighed. Flattery was the only kind of logic that people like Nishinoya understood. In fact, Nishinoya was the type of person that could be talked into doing almost anything if given the right amount of encouragement, so of course he would think that it was the same for everyone else. In reality, that type of goading did nothing to stroke Ennoshita's competitive fire, and if anything, just made him roll his eyes and dig his heels in deeper. 

_Simpleton_ his inner Tsukkishima voice muttered.

Ok, that really needed to stop before it got out of control.

Tanaka was strangely quiet throughout this exchange. He hung back behind the pair like a third wheel, following them with his hands stuffed in the pockets of his warm ups. Typically, he and Nishinoya shared the same brain about things like this. It was actually a little weird not having Tanaka on his opposite shoulder, feeding off of Nishinoya's exuberance while also supplying his own. Not that he was complaining. Well, maybe only a little bit. Perhaps the conversation would be a bit more tolerable with Tanaka's warm weight at his side. 

Ennoshita shook off that dangerous thought. 

"You would be great at it Ennoshita-san," Tanaka supplied, a bit subdued with a good natured jab into Ennoshita's side and a nasty leer pulling at his lips that made Ennoshita's heart skip a beat. It shouldn't have. It wasn't a cute face, but Ennoshita couldn't deny the effect it had on him.

"Well maybe I'll-- I'll think about it," Ennoshita admitted. That wasn’t a lie. He thought about his nomination for captain a lot, it was just that the train of thought usually led to him deciding that it wouldn’t be a good fit. So he _definitely_ wasn't just agreeing now because of those big brown eyes shining at him. Of course not.

He could hear Nishinoya letting out a whoop of excitement at his compliance, but it sounded far away. He might as well have been in a completely different city. Tanaka's happy expression at his confession sucked in all of his senses. The sound of his trainers as they padded on top of the loose stones of the dirt road, the faint smell of sweat left on his skin from practice, the slight upturn of his lips and small lines of skin wrinkling at his eyes.

"That's what I'm talking about!" Tanaka erupted with a roar, seemingly broken out of his subdued atmosphere and jumping to pound a celebratory fist into the air, and then again to high five Nishinoya over Ennoshita's head. 

Despite himself, their antics made Ennoshita smile. "It's not a for sure thing," he said, trying to sound strict. 

"I can't hear you!!" Nishinoya hollered, as he swiftly pulled Ennoshita's school bag off of his shoulder and dashed off down the path with it. Tanaka took off after him, laughing. Ennoshita paused for a minute to get his bearings back before following a moment after. Did they just use a sweeter version of Tanaka to lure him into agreeing with them? No, they couldn’t possibly be that smart.

...Right?

Ennoshita shouted as he followed them, demanding they give him his bag back, but once he had caught up with Nishinoya, the libero tossed the bag to Tanaka, his accomplice. Tanaka caught the bag easily and shook it like he was trying to entice Ennoshita to come after it. 

Ennoshita stopped. He wasn't about to be made a fool of himself and play monkey in the middle with these two idiots. "Seriously just give me my bag back" he said, not falling for the bait and staying exactly where he was. There was no way that he was going to jump around in between them like a little monkey grasping for a banana. 

Tanaka slung the bag over his shoulder casually. "I dunno," he shrugged. "What do you think Noya-san?"

Nishinoya made a (incredibly annoying) face of mock concentration. "I mean, if he was our captain then we'd have to listen to him, but since he's not we should probably just keep it..." 

Tanaka laughed and tossed the bag back to Nishinoya. Ennoshita was still standing close to him so he tried to grab it in the air before it came down into Nishinoya's range, but the libero jumped and was able to grab it in midair, just millimeters away from Ennoshita's reaching fingers. He tossed it back to Tanaka before Ennoshita could snatch it away from him. 

"This isn't funny," Ennoshita declared, but Tanaka and Nishinoya were both laughing like it was. 

Ennoshita huffed. He knew what they were doing and he wasn’t going to let it work. They could tease him all they wanted, but simply losing a little game of keep away wasn’t going to convince him to agree to be captain. If anything, it might have pushed him further in the other direction. If this was the kind of nonsense he could look forward to policing for the next year, then he wanted no part of it.

The bag sailed over his head again and Nishinoya caught it, dancing away from Ennoshita's hands and throwing it away again just when Ennoshita was about to tackle him to get it back. 

“It’s not going to work,” Ennoshita was breathing hard, feeling a bit more ruffled than he would admit to after all the jumping around. “And we all know that you’re going to have to give my bag back eventually. I can wait it out.” He smiled, a little bit dangerously, assuming that the pair would realize that they had been beaten. 

Tanaka was holding the bag in one outstretched hand. He met eyes with Nishinoya and something about the look made a cold shiver pass down Ennoshita’s spine. This couldn’t be good. 

With a shrug, Tanaka let the bag fall to the ground, but just as Ennoshita stepped forward to claim it, Tanaka crouched next to the bag and started unzipping it. He grinned devilishly at Ennoshita. “But can you wait until after we go through your bag and find all the weird secret stuff you’re always hiding in here?”

They stared one another down in a standoff for the centuries. 

Or at least, that’s how Ennoshita would have framed it if this was a scene in a movie, but unfortunately, reality was rarely so kind.

Ennoshita blanched and caved immediately. "Fine! Fine. I'll do it. Just give me my bag back already!"

Tanaka paused, the zipper still held between his thumb and forefinger. "You'll do what?" he goaded with a shit-eating grin that made Ennoshita's blood boil and his heart stutter.

"I'll be the captain," Ennoshita growled, stalking over to the other and ripping his bag out of his hands. "Just never touch my stuff again."

"Aye aye captain!" Nishinoya hooted from behind him while Tanaka gave him a mock salute and a smile.  


* * *

So. The volleyball team might have been a little gayer than Ennoshita had originally thought. 

Just a little bit. 

And only if the pair of baseball pants and size eleven cleats clinging onto Tanaka's hips actually belonged to another boy and it wasn't just some sort of insanely realistic dream, or daydream, or hallucination Ennoshita's brain had conjured up to torture him. But Ennoshita wasn’t sure he was sadistic enough for his brain to to imagine the jersey of the baseball team's star pitcher on the ground next to his crush. But then again, who knew? 

He cleared his throat almost involuntarily, it was more of a surprised reactionary response than a real attempt to get them to stop, but the pair froze nevertheless. 

"Um, sorry. I think that I'll just come back in like, twenty minutes. Sorry to, uh, interrupt," he stuttered out awkwardly, already shuffling backwards away from the pair.

Ennoshita was already mid-pivot to get away, to get anywhere but here, but Tanaka rolled off of the body beneath him- and yep, that was definitely a boy. Ennoshita's cheeks instantly colored into a bright, hot blush. The baseball player immediately grabbed for his jersey and pulled it on, the number one on the front of it sliding down his torso as he pulled it down to cover himself. He made a hasty exit, promising to text Tanaka and leaving Ennoshita with a cruel glare. And in no time at all Ennoshita was alone with Tanaka.

Tanaka laughed softly, awkwardly in a way that shouldn't have been charming. He somehow pulled it off though- although Ennoshita may have been just a little bit biased. "Sorry you had to see that," he said, rubbing at the back of his prickly head with his palm. 

"No, no. I mean, I was early for our meeting anyways. I shouldn't have... barged in," Ennoshita managed to say around the lump in his throat. What was even happening? He had just caught his teammate, his friend, his crush, his _straight_ crush making out with a guy behind the auxiliary gym. What was the world coming to? What was next? Hinata getting an A on a math test? Kageyama saying no to after practice snacks? He couldn't even imagine. 

Tanaka's eyebrows knit together. "We had a meeting?"

"We were going to go over practice drills for the team."

"Shit, right. I totally forgot. This whole vice-captain stuff is still new to me."

Ennoshita shrugged and walked over by where Tanaka was and sat down next to him. Casual, just be casual. "Obviously," he teased. It made Tanaka snort out a fake sounding laugh, but he wasn't going to call the other out on it. It was apparent that they were both pretending to act normal when things between them definitely weren't. 

Ennoshita would, when he thought back on it, blame the weird atmosphere for what came out of his mouth next. "So are you like, asexual or something, then?"

Unsurprisingly, Tanaka looked quite taken aback by the comment, considering the scene that Ennoshita had just witnessed his confusion was only to be expected. 

"No! I mean!" Ennoshita tried to spit out, before Tanaka could say anything. "You know how 'ace' is slang for asexual, and well, you're an ace, and he's an ace so it's like you're 'ace-sexual' and... yeah, that was an awful joke and I should probably stop talking..." As Ennoshita spoke he could feel his face getting redder and redder, but he couldn't stop. His mouth was moving faster than his brain could keep up with, and the more he talked, the less sense this train of thought made. It had seemed funny in his head, but out loud it was just nonsense, and well, a little bit offensive. 

Tanaka stared at him with a blank look. The moment passed so slowly, it felt like a lifetime. Ennoshita's nerves were so tuned in to every sensation around him that he could feel the itchy weight of the grass against the bare parts of his legs. He could feel the dread dripping into the pit of his stomach and pooling there. 

But then Tanaka was laughing, loud and full and real, all traces of awkwardness absent from his posture as he leaned back against the brick of the auxiliary gym building to support himself. His smile was bright and warm, infectious, inviting, and without realizing it, Ennoshita found himself smiling back at the other boy as he felt the uncomfortable atmosphere draining away. 

When Tanaka had finally found the strength to compose himself his smiled wide and carefree at Ennoshita, so bright that it was almost blinding. "No," he said, with another small chuckle. "I'm not, whatever it is you said."

Of course not, Ennoshita thought. The smile fell off of his face. Here came the part where Tanaka told him that it had all been a joke, a dare, a prank, something. Maybe they had found out that Ennoshita had a big gay crush on him and they were teasing him... 

"I'm bi." The words came out of Tanaka's mouth in a rush, all in one gust of air that floated away too fast. Ennoshita had wanted to catch it, to save it, to put it back where it had come from and let Tanaka say it again, and maybe this time it wouldn't sound like such a dirty secret, like it was something to be ashamed of. 

It was hypocritical, Ennoshita knew, because his own sexuality was the biggest secret he had. It was his dirty secret, his breathless, ashamed confession. But it didn't feel right for it to be Tanaka's. Tanaka, who was so loud and never apologetic about it, who embraced everything that he was and kept it on his sleeve for the world to see. He didn't change who he was for people, and whether they liked it or not wasn't his problem. "You don't have to say it like it's a bad thing," Ennoshita told him when he had finally found his voice. 

Suddenly, Tanaka perked up. "What? It's not!" He defended. "Noya and my sister both know!"

"Then don't say it like it's a secret."

"Oh, it’s probably just because you’re here," Tanaka said quietly, almost under his breath with uncertainty laced in his voice. 

"What?"

"Ah! Nevermind!" Tanaka scrambled to his feet. "We should, uh, start working on those drills you were talking about earlier. Before everyone else gets here for practice." 

Obviously Tanaka didn't want to talk about it anymore, and Ennoshita wanted to respect that, so he hoisted himself to his feet and brushed the dirt off of his shorts and agreed as Tanaka turned his back to him and started to walk around to the front of the building. 

But still, there was something nagging him at the back of his mind. 'If you don't do it now then you never will', it told him. 

It was probably right. 

"I'm gay," he blurted, before his sensible self could stop it. "I've never told anyone before. But I, uh, I wanted you to know." 

Tanaka turned back to him, his expression a little shocked, but overall he looked happy in a way that Ennoshita couldn't quite describe. "Cool," he said, with a sincere tone to his voice that Ennoshita rarely got to hear outside of the volleyball court. "Now come on, let's make up some drills that will make the new first years cry!"

Ennoshita laughed as he followed close behind.


	2. Chapter 2

Nothing really changed after their confessions outside of the auxiliary gym. It wasn't like Ennoshita had been expecting a life changing moment but well, he had been expecting a little bit more than this. Coming out for the first time had been a big deal to him, and after their little moment, Ennoshita had been expecting some kind of LGBT camaraderie between himself and Tanaka. 

But nothing had changed. 

Honestly, he shouldn't have expected it to. This was Tanaka he was talking about. 

Tanaka was still the same goofball that he always was, and he treated Ennoshita the same. He didn't make jokes about cute guys when they were alone, or stare at boy's butts in the hallways during school. Though that was probably a good thing because Ennoshita wasn't sure if he was mentally equipped to handle something like that.

But still. He had been expecting something. 

Anything. 

"Captain!" The shrill voice of one of the new first years called out right before Ennoshita took a powerful serve to the head. He fell to the ground with a thump. Stars floated across his vision, clearing only to reveal Kinoshita’s extended hand. He grabbed it and pulled himself to his feet. When he felt that he had his equilibrium back he let go of his friend and used his freed hand to brush the dust from the floor off of his practice clothes.

"Sorry Ennoshita-san!" Yamaguchi's voice rung out from the other side of the gym. The sound circled around Ennoshita's head a couple times, bouncing off of the walls on the gym. A snicker, muffled behind Yamaguchi’s hand, immediately followed the apology. He obviously wasn't nearly as sorry as he claimed to be. It made Ennoshita roll his eyes, mostly used to the troublemaking second-years by now, even if by comparison his fellow third years were much more of a hassle on a daily basis. Bless Daichi-san for putting up with them all for so long. 

"You ok?" Narita asked, with a concerned hand on Ennoshita's back to steady him in case he lost his balance. 

"Yeah, I'm good," Ennoshita assured him, smiling at his friend in a way that he hoped was convincing. 

Narita didn't look completely convinced. "You've been spacing out all day. Honestly, I'm surprised this is the first ball that's hit you."

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Ennoshita assured, shaking the other off of him with a huff and a slight wobble as he was hit was a small wave of dizziness. Narita let out a snort of a laugh on his behalf which Ennoshita really didn't appreciate.

Just as Ennoshita was about to get set back in his position to receive the next serve, Ukai called him over to the bench. "Your eyes are a little dilated," the coach observed. "Does your head still hurt?" Ennoshita shook his head. Ukai didn’t look like he believed him. "Either way, you might still have a slight concussion. You should have the nurse check you out just to be safe." 

Ennoshita sighed. He felt mostly fine, but he reluctantly agreed to go to the nurse anyways. 

"Do you want Yachi to come with you?"

The manager perked up at the sound of her name, her small bag of first aid equipment already clutched securely in her hands. "I don't think that's necessary. Yachi should stay here and keep an eye on everyone for me." She nodded, up to the task, and Ukai reluctantly agreed. 

It wasn't that long of a walk to the nurse's office, but Ennoshita took his time anyways. He wanted to get back to practice, but he also knew that he had to clear his head before he went back or else there was a good chance that he would take another volleyball to the head. Usually it wasn't too hard to keep Tanaka out of his thoughts during practice, but lately he had just been so _distracting_. 

The ace’s skin looked darker lately, like he had been spending extra time outside. And when Ennoshita was really paying close attention, sometimes he would be able to see a sliver of pale skin slip out from underneath Tanaka's shirtsleeve. It drove him crazy. Also, something about being vice-captain had really stirred up some of Tanaka's caretaking instincts. Tanaka had always been good with kouhai (exampled nicely by the way that Hinata fawned over him constantly), but he seemed especially good with the new first years and Ennoshita couldn't help it if his brain naturally extrapolated that to mean Tanaka was probably good with kids which made him feel a little lovesick and _weak_ on the inside in a way that he wasn’t ready to fully come to grips with yet. 

On his way to the infirmary, he has to pass the baseball field where the team was filing out of the dugout with their bags full of bats, gloves, and helmets slung over their shoulders as they chatted and laughed amongst themselves. Their captain, Saito, waved when he saw Ennoshita and jogged over, his oversized bag smacking against his back. "Hey man," he greeted with a large grin and a handshake. The two of them had been in the same class since first year and were getting on better than ever now that they could lament over their stresses of being captains together. 

Ennoshita returned the greeting. "How's it going?. You guys done with practice already?"

"Ah, yeah. We have a couple practice games in the morning and I want everyone to be rested, so we decided to leave early and do some strategy in the club room. Where are you off to? I know you guys aren't skipping out on practice early." By now it was a well known fact that of all the sports teams at Karasuno the volleyball team always stayed the latest for practice. Another school-wide joke, even if this one was less mocking and more of admiration. They hadn’t gone to Nationals last year by slacking off, after all. 

"Nah, I'm just on my way to the nurse. Got hit pretty good in the head with a stray ball." 

Saito laughed. "That seems to happen to you guys way more often than it should."

"Yeah!" chimed in one of the other players, "stop trying to shove so many balls in your face!"

"It happens so much he probably likes it by now!" someone else added, and it made the group laugh. Ennoshita laughed too, though it was a touch more exasperated than he had intended to let show. No one was even creative when teasing them anymore. Poor Hinata got the brunt of this particular kind of teasing though, so he really shouldn't complain. It also helped that he knew no one meant it maliciously. 

"Well we’ve got to get to our meeting, but I'll see you later Ennoshita! Text me when practice lets out and if I’m still here we can walk together." Saito called with a wave as he led his team away from the field and towards the clubhouse. They had a lot more players than the volleyball team had, but perhaps that was to be expected when they had nine players on the field at a time when in volleyball they only had six, although the volleyball team did have a record number of team members this season. After their presence at nationals last year it seemed like a lot more people were interested in joining the team. They had even had actual _try-outs_ at the beginning of the year. 

The mob of baseball players thinned as they passed him until eventually it was just a single player bringing up the back of the group by himself. That very last member in the line of players had his head down, eyes hidden beneath his cap and his hands stuffed inside the back pockets of his pants. Ennoshita couldn't make out his face, but he definitely recognized the large number one on the front of his warm ups. 

"You got a problem?" The ace snarled, stopping his his tracks to confront Ennoshita without ever raising his eyes from the ground. 

"Uh. No?" Ennoshita replied eloquently, stunned by the abruptness and ferocity that the other boy had approached him with.

"Are you sure?"

"Um..."

"Don't think I don't know what you're doing. Just because you're his captain doesn't mean you can tell Tanaka what to."

"I don't tell Tanaka what to do," Ennoshita said, immediately, voice edging dangerously towards irritation. And it was true. Even though he was captain, it wasn't like he could make anyone on the team do something that they didn't want to do. Everyone made their choice every day that they came to practice. Ennoshita knew that better than anyone.

But furthermore, what was this guy even talking about? Was he still upset that Ennoshita had caught him and Tanaka together?

"Look, I don't know why you have such a problem with what he does in his personal time, but it really isn't any of your business. So just butt out." The ace was edging closer, eyes just barely visible under the brim of his cap. They were sharp eyes, cutting, dangerous. He was shorter than Ennoshita was, but it didn't make him any less threatening. It may have even made him moreso, although Ennoshita didn’t think he could express why with any sort of eloquence.

"I'm not in any of his personal business," Ennoshita stressed. No matter how much sometimes he wished he could be. "And I'm not telling him what to do in it. I don't know where you're getting all these ideas from but whatever is going on between you two it has nothing to do with me."

"Right," the ace drawled, finally tipping his head back to look up at Ennoshita. He had a defensive, disbelieving look on his face, but at the same time, it was smug, challenging, a dare for Ennoshita to lie to him. "That's why he completely stopped talking to me right after you 'accidentally' saw us."

Ennoshita froze. "H-he did?"

"Everything was fine before you stuck your nose into it," the ace continued as if he hadn't heard Ennoshita's surprised gasp at all. 

"You've got it all wrong," Ennoshita said. "It doesn't bother me if he wants to, you know, be with guys," it was as specific as he could get without lying, because he most certainly minded Tanaka being with pretty much any boy except him but, well, the ace didn't need to know that. Not right now at least. "I'm gay too," he added, mostly without thinking, hoping that it would add some kind of point of contact between the two of them that would decrease the hostility.

"Congratu-fucking-lations," the ace growled as he hitched his bag up more securely on his shoulder and shoved past Ennoshita. "Just mind your own damn business and stay out of my way." 

Ennoshita watched him go, eyes trained onto the baseball player's back and watching the number one, and the name, Ono, on his back bounce up and down with the weight of his steps as he stomped away.

* * *

Ennoshita slipped his practice jersey over his head. At the beginning of the year, the captain's jersey had felt too heavy and too large for him, like there was too much fabric hanging off of his frame. He had been afraid, at first, that it would mess him up during games, but thankfully, it seemed that as the season wore on he seemed to fill it out better. It still wasn't a perfect fit, not like it had been on Daichi, but at least it didn't feel like he was wearing someone else's uniform anymore. 

With his hands he smoothed out the wrinkles that had appeared in the fabric during its stay in his gym bag while he was at school. It would just get wrinkled again during the game, but it wouldn't hurt to look presentable in the meantime, even if it was just his practice jersey. 

Most of his teammates didn't seem to feel the same way. Kageyama's jersey was rolled up into a ball behind his head as he laid on the floor napping in his warm ups. Hinata's was covered in grass stains, something about extra practice with Tsukishima gone wrong but Ennoshita hadn't even wanted to know the particulars of it. It would probably just make him upset anyways- most things involving the rambunctious second years did that to him. Nishinoya was doing a handstand against the wall and his uniform was crumpled up at his neck from the gravity. Tanaka didn't even have his shirt. He was rampaging around the changing room with nothing on but his shorts and sneakers. 

"Where is it?! I know it put it in my bag this morning!" Contents of his duffle bag were thrown out onto the floor one by one until there was nothing left inside.

Nishinoya cleared his throat from his position on the wall and whistled conspicuously at him to get Tanaka’s attention and then discreetly nodded his head into the direction the door. Tanaka stared at him for a moment before their wordless exchange seemed to sink in. He immediately scrambled to his feet while haphazardly throwing on his warm up shirt and stuttering, "I uh- think I should go check my locker again."

Ennoshita shrugged, trying to shake off the weird exchange. If he kept tabs on every weird thing Tanaka and Nishinoya did together then he would never sleep, so he had very quickly learned to pick his battles. "Make sure you're back before Seijoh gets here! We aren't waiting for you to get back to start!" Everyone knew that he was lying. It was still the beginning of the season with their new team and it would be important to show up to their practice match at their strongest. As the ace and the vice-captain, Tanaka had a way of holding everyone together that Ennoshita knew he couldn’t match on his own, and the team would be considerably worse for wear without him. 

As the time of the practice match got closer, the players trickled out of the club room to start their warm ups in the gym until Ennoshita was the only one left, staring at Tanaka's open gym bag still sitting in the center of the room where he had left it in his rush to leave. _Might as well go look for him now, before it gets too close to game time,_ Ennoshita decided as he pulled himself onto his feet. 

After searching by Tanaka's locker in the main school building with no luck, Ennoshita decided to head back to the auxiliary gym with the hope that Tanaka had found his way back on his own and that they had just somehow missed one another. But just to be thorough, he decided to take the long way around campus. It was on this path that he heard a voice that sounded horrifyingly like Tanaka in the distance shouting angrily. 

Ennoshita ran towards the sound until he could clearly see Tanaka standing tall, toe to toe with Ono the baseball ace. They were obviously fighting, aggressive stances and faces so close together that it almost looked intimate if not for the rigid, furious tension radiating between them. Honestly, in this situation Ennoshita almost hoped for the first option. At least that would be easier to break up. 

It was impossible for Ennoshita to clearly hear their words as he approached the pair, but it was obvious that the more Ono talked the more upset Tanaka got. Always, Tanaka liked to act tough, but in most situations outside of volleyball games he was all talk, empty threats to appear like a big shot with no substance behind it. Ennoshita couldn’t be sure that Tanaka had ever been in a real fight in his life, despite how Tanaka liked to brag on how tough he was. But Ennoshita wasn’t sure that the same could still be said after today. Even from far away Ennoshita could see the tension hidden in the taut muscles of his arms, tightened like a spring ready to come undone at the slightest movement.

“Shit,” Ennoshita breathed out. He sprinted as fast as he could towards to pair. He had to stop this- whatever it was about- before it escalated too far. 

As he got close, it was obvious that Tanaka looked like he legitimately wanted to punch Ono in the face. Ennoshita still couldn’t hear them, he wasn’t even listening, it didn’t matter what they were saying just that he needed to stop it. Ono was goading Tanaka into doing it, pushing his body in closer to Tanaka’s, slithering his smug face inches closer into his personal space like a snake and daring Tanaka to either kiss him or hit him.

Tanaka’s arm had already made that decision for him. He had already swung back for the blow when Ennoshita managed to wedge himself in between the two of them and stopped Tanaka’s shaking fist with his own steady grip. “Tanaka, you don’t want to hit him,” Ennoshita reasoned with a solid glare that he hoped would fix Tanaka firmly into place. It almost seemed to work. Tanaka didn’t fight the grip on his wrist and he took his first look away from Ono and focused onto Ennoshita’s face.

“Yeah,” Ono agreed, breaking the temporary truce. “Listen to your master, little puppy.”

Tanaka’s eyes were wild as he looked through Ennoshita back at Ono. His arm flexed against the grip. Ennoshita stumbled a bit. If Tanaka ended up using all of his force he definitely wouldn’t be able to hold the other boy back.

“Look at me,” Ennoshita commanded, squeezing at Tanaka’s wrist and trying to gain back control of the situation. (Had he ever really had control to begin with? In any of this? Not just today but ever with Tanaka? He couldn’t remember ever having the upper hand before. What was he even supposed to do?) Tanaka begrudgingly obeyed, but his features were still fixed in distaste and distrust. “If you hit him you won’t be able to play for the rest of the semester. Is that really worth it? To be benched for your last year of volleyball, to let down the team as their ace? The team needs you there.” He gulped. “I need you there.”

Tanaka’s wide eyes finally blinked into some sort of coherence and his arm went slack in Ennoshita’s hand. All of the built up frustration left him. Ennoshita stared into his vice-captain’s face and smiled.

“Oh, I get it,” Ono drawled, his voice cutting through the moment. All of Ono’s pent up rage saturated his tone. It made Ennoshita spin around to stare at him now that he wasn’t concentrating on holding Tanaka back. “It _is_ because of him,” Ono growled. “Just not the way I thought.”

The baseball player wound up and punched Ennoshita squarely on the left side of his face, causing the captain to fall over from the unexpected weight of it. Ennoshita could hear, distantly, Tanaka growling over him. “What the hell, asshole?” but even as he could feel the light pressure of Tanaka’s hand on his shoulder and could see his face looming over his own, the sound was faint and everything seemed far away. Tanaka was still shouting, looking out somewhere that Ennoshita couldn’t see without moving his head. He couldn’t make out any of the words Tanaka was saying. All he could hear was a deafening ringing noise in his ears that eventually lulled him to sleep.

* * *

When Ennoshita woke up the first thing he realized was that he wasn’t lying in the grass by the baseball fields anymore, but was instead on a lumpy cot inside somewhere. One good look around revealed that it was the nurse’s office. Stark white walls with nothing on them greeted him, as well as a handwashing sink in the corner with a cup full of tongue depressors on it’s counter, and a chair next to his cot containing a pensive looking Tanaka. 

Ennoshita groaned, hands immediately going to hold his throbbing head. When his fingers touched the left side of his face another painful sensation exploded into his nerves from the area and he cursed in pain again. _Shit,_ he thought. He would probably have a black eye. 

“Hey, hey you gotta be careful!” Tanaka’s gruff voice called out in concern. “Don’t move around too much.”

Another pained grunt from Ennoshita. “What happened?” His head was spinning.

“That cowardly asshole punched you and then ran for it before I could grab him. You hit the ground pretty hard and blacked out for awhile.”

“What about the practice match?”

“It’s still going on. Yamaguchi texted during the last time-out with an update though. They’re winning right now but not by a lot. He says that Tsukishima and Kageyama are blocking Kyotani really well together.”

“That’s good at least. I thought those two were going to kill each other these last couple weeks.”

Tanaka hummed in agreement. “They’re getting better though.”

“Slowly.”

“Mhm.”

Ennoshita couldn’t take it anymore. “Why aren’t you there? We need you on the court.”

Tanaka shrugged. “Dude you could be at least a little bit grateful that I stayed behind with you.”

“I am. It’s just, shouldn’t at least one of us be there?”

“It’s fine. I told them what happened. Everyone understands.”

“But what about you? I don’t want to keep you from playing just to babysit me.” 

“I said it’s fine,” Tanaka reminded, stern but somehow still gentle in a way that Ennoshita wasn’t used to seeing from him. “The game’s almost over anyways. You were asleep for awhile.”

They were quiet for a minute. Ennoshita was still trying to get his equilibrium back, everything felt fuzzy. He was almost back to normal when Tanaka’s next words threw him for another loop that completely knocked him off balance again. 

“I’m sorry,” he said softly. “That you had to get involved in all of this. It wasn’t supposed to go down that that.” 

Ennoshita let out a breath. “It’s fine.” He didn’t mention that this outcome was by far preferable to the one that would have occurred if Ennoshita hadn’t been there. If Tanaka would have punched Ono and someone else had come across them. Tanaka would have been at the very least suspended from club activities for the rest of the year. Probably suspended from school too.

"Crazy ex's, huh?" Tanaka said with a fake chuckle after another bout of silence. In that time Ennoshita had sat up on his cot and pulled out his phone to see if there had been any more updates on the practice match.

"I wouldn't know. Haven't had any," Ennoshita shrugged, distractedly not even bothering to stop the tapping of his thumbs on his phone. He had to try to diffuse this situation while he still could. And that meant pushing away this weird intimacy he felt in the moment- Tanaka at his bedside, apologizing, still trying to make him laugh even when there was nothing to laugh about.

"Right." Tanaka coughed awkwardly into his hand. He gazed around the room distractedly. "I forgot."

Ennoshita hummed in agreement, clutching onto his phone a little tighter.

"It's just easy to forget, yanno?" Tanaka continued, staring at the ceiling. "You're so..." he gestured vaguely, but grandly with his hands and it made Ennoshita's eyebrows raise. He didn’t know exactly what Tanaka meant by it, but he definitely knew that-

"I'm not," he countered. "I'm just..." he gestured lamely to himself. Plain, boring Chikara. 

"You're not! You're our captain for a reason!"

"And those reasons are blackmail,” he did his best to glare at Tanaka, “and that no one else would take the job..."

"Dude no!" Tanaka exclaimed. "I can’t even believe you still think that! Those are just the made up reasons, the excuses. The _real_ reasons are because you're smart and dependable and relatable and because the team is definitely better as a whole with you on it." 

The praise made Ennoshita smile a little. He caught the reflection of the face on the glossy black screen of the phone still in his hands. His own small brown eyes stared back at him. It might be nice to see himself like Tanaka did sometime. But still, he wasn’t sure if he really believed it, no matter how desperately everyone else tried to convince him otherwise. "Well, thank you. But I guess we're just going to have to agree to disagree."

"What? No! No way!" Tanaka insisted, jumping up from his chair and sliding onto the cot next to him. "We're not leaving here until you completely understand that you're the coolest guy I've ever met." 

The blush that bloomed on Ennoshita's face was hot and distracting, and Tanaka's proximity wasn't helping it. He flipped his phone over in his lap so he wouldn’t have to look at the obvious expression on his face. "You're just making fun of me," he ducked his head down to try and hide it. 

Tanaka stared at him, weirdly serious and intense in a way that Ennoshita wasn’t used to having directed at himself from anyone (least of all from a silly crush). It looked like he was trying to figure him out. “And I think Noya would be a little upset to hear you say that,” Ennoshita finished, trying to change the subject of conversation away from himself and onto someone else as always. He had to break the tension somehow. It wasn’t a bad tension, just weird. This whole conversation was starting to feel too weirdly intimate for Ennoshita’s comfort levels. It didn’t help that Tanaka kept leaning forward into his personal space. 

“Nah dude,” Tanaka said in a whisper, still inching forward. Ennoshita had nowhere to go so he stayed put, trying not to be influenced by the gravity surrounding Tanaka that was trying to pull him in. “He already knows.” 

Somehow Tanaka shifted impossibly closer until their breaths were mingling. Ennoshita flicked his eyes up to Tanaka’s face with every intent to ask the boy to move back. His heart really couldn’t take much more of this. But Tanaka interrupted the thought by grabbing his face in both hands and crashing their lips together, completely unapologetic. He was steady and confident where Ennoshita felt like he was flailing, falling with nothing holding him up except for Tanaka's strong hands.

"Do you get it?" Tanaka was slightly out of breath when he pulled back.

"Now I know you're just making fun of me," Ennoshita said, unable to look away from Tanaka’s gaze.

Tanaka must have seen the teasing glint in his eye because he grinned wolfishly and laughed loud, happy and perfect. "Don't make me kiss you again," he warned, even as he knocked his forehead against Ennoshita’s with a light _bonk_.

"Oh no, anything but that." Ennoshita returned the grin and, despite his words, was the one who dove in for the kiss this time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!<3
> 
> Sorry if it got a little OOC at the end ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! The next chapter should be up next week.
> 
> Please let me know what you thought of it. I love comments/constructive criticism.


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